Fed will stop buybacks after QE2, former official says

His take matches those generally held by other economists. In a recent poll conducted by Blue Chip Financial Forecasts, 88.6 percent of economists expected the Fed to complete the second quantitative easing, but only 14.9 percent thought it would go further.

The controversial decision has led to criticism from politicians, primarily Republicans, who worry the move could lead to high inflation. Mishkin did not agree with that concern.

“Is there any inflation problem? I don’t see it,” he said.

Mishkin was a member of the Federal Reserve Board from 2006 to 2008, and is currently an economist and professor at the Columbia Business School.

However, a “huge problem” for the Fed has been how it has dealt with that criticism, and sold its move to the public and politicians, he said.

“They have no long run strategy in place to describe how they’re using quantitative easing,” he said. “So far, they haven’t done what they need to do.”

The Fed seems to be aware of its public relations problem. Minutes from recent meetings indicate the Fed has discussed changes in its communication strategy, including having Chairman Ben Bernanke give regular press briefings explaining recent decisions by the central bank.